writing still from thailand.....
since lisa and i had a few extra days in thailand (bangkok specifically) we decided to walk the city and figure out what was going on in our area. after much searching we found a lonely planet of bangkok for $9.00, a few tourist maps and went from there.
so far each morning has started with some good sized portions of pad thai and mangos + sticky rice with a bottle of fresh squeezed OJ - about $2.00. again, we have been sure to stick to our strict Thai food diet. the lonely planet claims that thailand has the tastiest food in Asia and now that i've tested that theory for about 10 days i'm going to agree.
new year's eve started with our breakfast, a good review of where to go how to get there then we started walking. one vague goal was to end up at the flower market, but mostly we wanted to walk around and see what Bangkok had to offer. along the way we found a tasty treat of ice cream in a bread bun, guava and several markets with lots of cheap stuff and food.
outside the Thai King's palace we walked into a small park flocked with pigeons. looking the part of a tourist with our camera and backpacks a thai woman came up to us and shoved small bags of corn into our hands motioning to feed the birds. "How much?" we asked - "No fee...." happily we threw corn for the birds and got lots of photos while they attacked us for the treats.
after our bags were empty we started walking off and suddenly the "No fee" became "No free!" = cost. since our price hadn't been negotiated up front lisa was annoyed that she had tried to gyp us and started walking away. while lisa and i were discussing the situation the woman got in-between the two of us and started demanding payment. when i protested and tried to move around her she blocked me and even jabbed me in the stomach a few times.
"How much?" i asked again, as i figured it was fair to pay her something. "300 baht" (about $9.00 US which is equivelant to $50 for a Thai), NO! i protested. more yelling to lisa who was telling me to walk and the woman jabbed me again. fortunately, i had a 20 baht (about $.75) in my pocket which i pulled out and shoved into her hand. she waved 40 baht at me and demanded that, but since she had tricked us i figured 20 was good enough. i brushed by her and as lisa and i walked off she yelled an explitive in English, to which i turned around pointed and yelled "Hey!"
on our journey we rode the river ferry that runs up and down the river that cuts through the middle of Bangkok to get to our destinations. eventually, we made it down to the flower market. streets and alleys and shops FULL of flowers and stuff for flowers and more flowers.
the Thai's use flowers, mostly marigolds since they are the color of the royalty, to make offerings to their spirit houses, offerings at temples and to tie anywhere they want good things to happen. it's a big business this flower thing. it was fun to wander around and smell it all. eventually we got hungry so we sat down at a street side kitchen and had some freshly cooked pad thai. yum.
at one point some young thai guy started yelling at us in English and pointing to his friend, "You very love him..." we laughed and on our way past them again i yelled back to him "No, you very love him!" i had to say it a few times, but he didn't quite understand my meaning -- always be careful when yelling out statements in a different language.
we made our way back to our neighborhood where the party was starting to build and it was only 6pm. set up at the end of the kao san road market street was as stage for the night's show. the front 2 rows consisted of what looked like living room furniture - for important people we assumed - then rows and rows of plastic chairs behind that. there happened to be some open seats front and center on the front row of the economy section so we sat down to see what would happen.
there was a show with lots of thai spoken that was then translated into English by a Thai guy who didn't know English. several dancers coming out and doing traditional thai dance - which was pretty cool. besides the mic occasionally getting some loud and high pitched feedback, the most exciting thing was the elephant parked off to the side of the whole production.
it was painted from head to toe and chained to avoid any incidents. everyone was mobbing around it taking photos of themselves touching the tusks. when someone gave it money it would grab the cash with the end of its trunk and hand it up to its trainer who was perched above its head. after everyone got photos of the front of the elephant the trainer had it turn around and written on its behind, in big letters, "Happy New Year Thailand."
part way through the show the trainer decided to take it for a walk down the middle of the market street that was now mobbed with people, people who were getting progressively more soused. somehow all of this was normalized - and i suppose it is as we are in bangkok and everytime i have visited this city i have seen more bizarre things than anywhere else in the world.
we made our way back to the hostel before things got really exciting. by 10:30pm we were stuffing ear plugs in our ears to block out the huge speakers that were blasting the roof off the bar next door and the guy who kept yelling 'whoooooh' at 30-90 second intervals. i vaguely remember hearing some yelling and blasts about midnight, but the ear plugs were the best invention every created as i slept better in bangkok than anyone else last night.
HAPPY NEW YEAR - whoooooo ,,,,, whooooo ---- whooooooh
